1. The Technical Field
The present invention relates to food products. More particularly, the present invention relates to packaged or wrapped food products. Preferred embodiments comprise products adapted to be prepared with microwave heating.
2. The Prior Art
At present, at least two significant consumer trends influence consumer preference for food products. Consumers increasingly are eating more either away from home or even if at home, away from traditional, sit down full course dinners. Rather, consumers are eating more and more "on the run" whether at home or in work or pleasure activities. The second trend is for consumer preference for food products perceived as being more nutritious than conventional snack items.
Due to these two trends, convenience, snack and novelty food items are enjoying greatly increased consumer popularity. Especially desirable are food products which combine more than one type of food so as to provide an interesting blend or contrast of flavor, texture, temperature and the like. By way of example, frozen novelty items such as cookies and ice cream frozen novelties have become quite popular.
The prior art, of course, includes numerous examples of inedible barriers in the form of laminates having moisture impermeable coating (see, for example, P. H. Carter U.S. Pat. No. 3,170,568 issued Feb. 23, 1965). Also known are edible containers having an inedible internal moisture barrier (see, H. M. Bank U.S. Pat. No. 4,472,440 issued Sep. 18, 1984. Rubenstein et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,390,553 (issued June 28, 1983) discloses an edible food container with a fat coating of its inner surface.
The prior art has included a number of packaging developments to provide two compartment packages to separate dissimilar components until admixture immediately prior to consumption. In particular, Slangan et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,233,325 (issued November 11, 1980) discloses a two compartment package comprising a first lower compartment and a second upper compartment. More specifically, the '325 discloses an ice cream package including a compartment for heating syrup. There the upper compartment may be either an integral part of the food package or may be a separate container that is removably fitted within the upper portion of the first lower compartment. One disclosed embodiment describes a pierceable inedible barrier between the upper and lower compartments which after creation of an orifice therein allows for admixture of the two food components previously separated. However, the barrier between the syrup and the ice cream is not edible. Thus, the package compartment housing the syrup must be removed entirely and the syrup poured onto the ice cream in the lower compartment. It is possible to make the supporting member of the compartment pierceable or tearable allowing for penetration thereof by, for example, a spoon, the contents of the upper container could then be allowed to fall or drain into the lower compartment. However, such construction suffers from several disadvantages. First, there is a trade-off between support strength of the barrier and the pierceability of the barrier. Second, for barriers which are more readily pierceable, fragments of the barrier material can be intermixed with the food. Not only is such admixture aesthetically unpleasant but consumption of the pieces of ruptured membrane material could possibly result in serious health problems.
The present invention provides a substantial improvement over the package disclosed in the '325 patent in the respect that the present food packages comprise a superior and an edible barrier which serves both to define, in part, the two compartments and to separate the two foods. By utilization of an edible barrier both the aesthetic and safety disadvantages of the '325 packages are avoided. Additionally, the package construction is simplified which results in a cup of reduced cost.
Another two compartment package with an edible barrier to separate dissimilar components is disclosed in A. E. Welch U.S. Pat. No. 2,714,070 (issued July 26, 1955) where an ice cream cake or cone body is used to separate an upper sauce component from a lower ice cream component in a microwaveable cup. However, such barriers have been found ineffective to prevent moisture migration between the two components over extended storage times even though simple physical separation of the components may be achieved. Also, the ice cream cone material loses its desirable crispness over time due to the moisture migration and becomes extremely tough thereby difficult to penetrate or to consume.